There with full gust the ambition of his mind Governs, as he of old in Heaven designed. Worshipped as God, his Paynim altars smoke, Embrued with blood of those that him invoke. The rest by Deputies he rules as well, And plants the distant colonies of Hell. By them his secret power he maintains, And binds the world in his infernal chains. By Zeal the Irish, and the Russ by Folly Fury the Dane, the Swede by Melancholy; By stupid Ignorance the Muscovite; The Chinese by a child of Hell called Wit Wealth makes the Persian too effeminate, And Poverty the Tartars desperate; The Turks and Moors by Mah’met he subdues, And God has given him leave to rule the Jews. Rage rules the Portuguese and Fraud the Scotch, Revenge the Pole and Avarice the Dutch. Satire, be kind, and draw a silent veil Thy native England’s vices to conceal; Or, if that task’s impossible to do, At least be just and show her virtues too— Too great the first; alas, the last too few! England, unknown as yet, unpeopled lay; Happy had she remained so to this day, And not to every nation been a prey. Her open harbours and her fertile plains (The merchant’s glory those, and these the swain’s) To every barbarous nation have betrayed her, Who conquer her as oft as they invade her; So beauty’s guarded but by innocence, That ruins her, which should be her defence. Ingratitude, a devil of black renown, Possessed her very early for his own. An ugly, surly, sullen, selfish spirit, Who Satan’s worst perfections does inherit; Second to him in malice and in force, All devil without, and all within him worse. He made her first-born race to be so rude, And suffered her so oft to be subdued; By several crowds of wandering thieves o’errun, Often unpeopled, and as oft undone; While every nation that her powers reduced Their languages and manners introduced. From whose mixed relics our compounded breed By spurious generation does succeed, Making a race uncertain and uneven, Derived from all the nations under Heaven. The Romans first with Julius Cæsar came, Including all the nations of that name, Gauls, Greeks, and Lombards, and, by computation Auxiliaries or slaves of every nation. With Hengist, Saxons; Danes with Sueno came, In search of plunder, not in search of fame. Scots, Picts, and Irish from the Hibernian shore, And conquering William brought the Normans o’er. All these their barbarous offspring left behind, The dregs of armies, they of all mankind; Blended with Britons, who before were here, Of whom the Welsh ha’ blessed the character. From this amphibious ill-born mob began That vain, ill-natured thing, an Englishman. The customs, surnames, languages, and manners Of all these nations are their own explainers: Whose relics are so lasting and so strong, They ha’ left a shibboleth upon our tongue, By which with easy search you may distinguish Your Roman-Saxon-Danish Norman English. The great invading Norman[12] let us know What conquerors in after times might do.